General Question

Did Jesus ever say or mean to imply "I will come forth and do for you what I see you cannot do for yourself"?

I was raised Christian, however recently I’ve been following a lot of New Age beliefs (I really don’t like calling it New Age because it’s not very accurate but it’ll do for now), and I need to make up my mind on what I think of Jesus. Here’s one video that inspired my questioning: http://youtu.be/56uUT1dJWWI

18 Answers

That was implicit in a lot of things he said, so I suppose you could make an argument for him being willing to do that. In my humble opinion, much of so called “new age” teaching is little more than political correctness carried into the relm of religion. This is not to say it has no applicability in the real world, but great discernment is called for when dealing with it.

Are you just questioning, or do you have problems with Jesus’ teachings, or what? What church were you raised in, if I may ask?

I’m thinking that when we see an opportunity to be Jesus hands and feet we should. Do unto others, and entertaining strangers who could be angels… (on my iPhone and can’t look up the verses, but you know which ones I’m talking about. )

He is quoted in Matthew 7:7 as saying, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:” That seems pretty specific to me. I’ve never been able to make it work, though.

@CaptainHarley That’s why I don’t like calling it “New Age” because “New Age” is an umbrella term for tons of different ideals and teachings that came out around the same time and all got thrown into one box. You could interview a hundred different people (no not literally) who claim to follow “New Age” beliefs, and each one would give you a slightly different story as to what they believe; It’s very diverse and you need to find a good source (like “the spirit science”) or you may just get lost in a sea of information.

With that said, I’m at a point in my life where I’m open to anything. If someone where to give me evidence (I don’t like that word evidence, it sounds to scientific and exact… but you get what I’m saying) supporting whatever, maybe I’ll start believing that, if later I find some information against it, then maybe I’ll start going that way. Nothing is set in stone. I just want to find the truth, the real truth. Not the flashy show church puts not (These two videos pretty much sum up my current view on Christianity link, link However I’m still not sure what to think of Jesus). I’m at a crossroads where I can pretty much either believe that Jesus died for our sins and that there is a God (absolutely nothing like how Christianity says he is, how the bible says he is link), or that we including Jesus are all an extension of source energy and Jesus was simply very allowing of that source energy to flow through him. What is Jesus? Can he really do things for us that we cannot do for ourselves?

It basically means, go ahead and just let go, and he will take over and give you that extra drive for whatever goal it is you need. Give your best foot forward for Jesus, in other words, since you cannot do it for yourself, do it for him. There are passages in the bible that talk about “giving your burden to God” of course I don’t do bible study anymore so I don’t know where it is.

Which is why the key question for christians and non-christians alike is: “What will you do with Jesus.” I wish I could share my own journey with you, but it’s too long ( 69 years is a lot of time to share ). Many years ago, I was right where you are now. It took me many years to overcome the effects of my early exposure to the “hellfire and brimstone” version of Christianity, but overcome it I did, and now the central focus of all Christianity for me is, “love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and strength,” and “love your neighbor as yourself.” Do I always succeed? No, because I am still human. But when I fail, I ask forgiveness, pick myself up, and try again.

@cadetjoecool Certainly I have heard of it. I’ve hears of dowsing, and Mayan Prophecies, and Ancient Alien theorists, and the power of pyramids, etc. etc. There is some truth that focusing on something constantly on a thing tends to cause you to bring it to be. But the law of attraction as absolute. First of all, it isn’t a Law and it’s not even a Theory. Scientifically, it isn’t even a valid postulate.

@Nullo You forget, I was a Bible College student. Haven’t you ever wondered why, as an Agnostic, I am always able to quote the relevant scripture when so many “Christians” just post their personal opinion?

@ETpro Law doesn’t automatically mean science… “the law of attraction” is a very fitting name (look up the definition of law), not a scientific category…

@filmfann hmmmm that’s a good one but it leaves open ended. Believe what? That all things are possible? That Jesus/God is the only one where all things are possible? I’ll definitely keep that one in mind though. Thanks for sharing!

@cadetjoecool, I enjoyed the poem, Why I Hate Religion. Jefferson Bethke seems like a cool guy. I watched the video of his poem, Sex, Marriage and Fairytales. It is a good poem and the video is good too. The thing is, I wouldn’t base my marriage on the poem anymore than I’d base my faith the poem or some “feeling or emotion” video by the Abraham group on Youtube. They are nice to read or watch, but I wouldn’t try to understand Jesus based on them. That is why you have the Bible and other religous texts.

cadetjoecool I see that you are searching for answers to life’s big questions and trying to be open to different ways of looking at things. That’s good as long as you retain a healthy dose of skepticism. There are too many hucksters out there trying to sell you on the idea that they have all the answers. I don’t believe anyone has all the answers.

We can’t be sure what Jesus said (and I know those who believe in literal biblical truth will disagree with me) because Jesus did not write the bible. We have an account of what he said which is secondhand. There are some who will try to say that he didn’t even exist as a real person. I do believe he existed. There are some who will say that he was a great prophet but he wasn’t (isn’t) God. To be honest, I hate to admit it, but I am one of those who isn’t sure. I don’t feel like I need to decide. What I do know is that I agree with many of the teachings attributed to Jesus in the bible. Many, not all. So I choose to live according to what I believe because I can’t be sure what he really said, and even if he said something, he may not be right. Ultimately I have to be the judge of it.

Law of attraction seems like the prettied up version of Positive Thinking I would call it Wishful thinking. See, the thing is, we want to believe these things wholeheartedly sometimes because it gives us more of a feeling of control. Feeling in control makes life less scary. But if we believe the positive part of law of attraction, we also have to buy into the negative aspects of it.To say that someone attracts sickness to them because they think of sickness and pain is just wrong, wrong, wrong!! Susan Sontag wrote a whole book about this blaming sick people for being sick. It’s called Illness as Metaphor

This had an effect on me as far as understanding how my thoughts can create a dynamic that helps me or hurts me and how to change damaging thought patterns. The advice I think, IMHO, is better than the new age mumbo-jumbo called Law of Attraction.

Here and are some of the things that I agree with in Jesus’ teaching. As far as your question goes I think many of the quotes already cited are good ones to support the idea that Jesus said he would help us to do what we cannot do on our own. But maybe he didn’t mean he would do it for us so much as he meant he would be there to help us and give us strength do it for ourselves.